1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a testing device to be used in testing body liquids such as urine, blood, abdominal dropsy, spinal fluid, and saliva and other liquids (such as drinking water and waste water).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, as a testing device for detecting components of a body liquid (humor) such as urine, a ribbonlike stick (supporting member) having a detecting function part capable of inducing a color-yielding reaction with the component of interest deposited on one surface of the stick has been known to the art.
In the conventional testing device, a substance such as resin of polystyrene which possesses suitable rigidity and waterproofness has been utilized for the material of the stick thereof.
This testing device, once used, cannot be discarded hygienically because it is smeared with the sample liquid. When the used testing device is discarded as it is, it has the possibility of nursing a pathogenic microorganism and consequently causing propagation of an infectious disease. It has been customary, therefore, to discard the used testing device as contained in a pouch of synthetic resin or dispose of it by incineration.
The disposal of the used testing device is extremely irksome as described above. Thus, the desirability of developing a testing device which can be easily disposed after use has been finding growing recognition.
For the purpose of solving the problem mentioned above, a testing device which has a detecting function part deposited on a stick and has this stick formed of a water-disintegrable material such as polyvinyl alcohol or polyvinyl pyrrolidone (JP-A-62-24,145) and a testing device which has a detecting part deposited on a stick and has this stick formed of a water-soluble stick proper such as a water-soluble paper excellent in disintegrability in water and a coating formed on the stick proper and made of a water-soluble substance such as polyvinyl alcohol or polyethylene oxide incapable of being substantially dissolved until the observation of the reaction caused on the detecting function part is completed (JP-A-1-121,752) have been proposed.
In the former testing device, though the stick thereof is made of such a water-soluble material as polyvinyl alcohol, it is dissolved slowly and it retains a viscous state until it is dissolved completely. If this testing device after use is disposed of by being thrown into a flush toilet, for example, the stick thereof adheres so fast to the inner wall of the toilet bowl as to defy the force of the flushing water and eventually defiles the toilet bowl.
The latter testing device has been proposed for the purpose of overcoming the problem of the former testing device. The latter testing device, owing to its unduly high dissolving speed, has the possibility of being deformed in the shape of a roll between the time the stick is brought into contact with a body liquid under test and the time the reaction of the components of the body liquid with the detecting function part is observed and determined. There are times when the stick fails to discharge fully its inherent role of supporting the detecting function part. Particularly when this testing device is deformed as described above, it becomes difficult for the testing device to be set properly in a measuring instrument and used for rating the results of the test.
An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide a novel testing device.
Another object of this invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional techniques described above and, to this end, provide a testing device which retains prescribed rigidity intact until the test is completed and undergoes immediate dissolution and dispersion on contact with water.